Safety-gtjakd fob



vUNITED STATES PATENT UFFICE.

THOMAS STEVART, OF PITTSBURG, BENNSYLVANIA.

SAFETY-GUARD FOR RAILROADS.

Specification' of Letters Patent No To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS STEWART, of Pittsburg, in the county ofAllegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and ImprovedSafety-Guard and Brake for Railroad Cars; and I do hereby declare 'thatthe following is a full, clear, and exact description of the saine,reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of thisspecification, in which- Figure l is a side sectional view of myinvention taken in the line m, Fig. 4; Fig. 2 a transverse verticalsection of the same taken in the line y, y, Fig. l; Fig. 3 a transversevertical section of the same taken in the line e, e, Fig. l; Fig. 4, aninverted plan of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the severaligures.

This invention has for its object, firstly, the preventing of thethrowing of the cars from the track by obstructions or other causes aswell as the sustaining of the cars in case of the breaking of a wheel oraxle; secondly, in a novel and improved brake forv expeditiously brakingup the cars by a moderate application of power.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct myinvention I will proceed to describe it.

A, Arepresent the rails of a rail-road track which niay be laid asusual, and B, is a central rail parallel with A, A, but more elevated.This central rail B, is of T form, its tread or horizontal tlanch a,being sufficiently wider than its vertical part b, to form a projectiona, at each side of b, as shown clearly in Figs. 2 and 3. This centralrail B, may be constructed of wood and firmly bolted to the sleepers orcross ties c, on which the rails A, A, are secured and the edges of theprojection ct, are faced with metal plates d.

C, is a car truck which is provided with t-wo axles D, I), having wheelsE, attached as usual, and F, F, are two parallel bars which are fittedon the axles D, connected at their front ends by traverse pieces e, andbraced by oblique bars f.

To a central traverse bar g, of the truck C, there are attached twopendants h, v, between which a roller Gr, is tted, the

. 30,006, dated September 11, 1860.

journals of the roller having their bearings in the pendants it, h. Eachpendant L, has a hook c', attached to it, said hooks projecting underthe edges a, a', of the flanch a, ofthe central rail B, as shown clearlyin Fig. 2. The roller G, when the truck is supported by its four wheelsE, is jus-t above the surface of the central rail B.

To the truck there are attached by oints y', two pendants H, H, whichextend down between the traverse pieces c, c, of the bars F, F, and haveeach a shoe K, at their lower end, said shoes being directly oppositethe edges a, of the iianch central rail B. Each pendant H, has a springZ, bearing against its inner side, said springs having a tendency tokeep the shoes 7c, off from the edges a', of the rail B, as will befully understood by referring to Fig. 3. To the lower part of eachpendant H, a rod I, is attached, said rods being also connected to thebars F, and serving as braces to the pendants. The pendants It, h, arealso braced from the bars F, by rods m. The lower ends of the pendantsH, H, have each a cord or chain, n, attached to them. These cords orchains n, pass up between rollers o, 0, which are tt'ed between thetraverse pieces c, c, and said cords or chains are connected at theirupper ends and pass over a roller f", and are attached to a lever J, onthe truck,said lever being connected to an ordinary hand rod K, by acord or chain g.

From the above description it will be seen that in case of the breakingof a wheel or an axle of the truck, the roller G, will tall on thecentral rail B, and support the truck, and it will also be seen that thehooks c', will prevent the car being thrown from the track. In order tobrake up the car the hand rod K, is turned and the pendants H, therebyactuated so that their shoes 7c, 7c, will be pressed against the edgesa', of the bar a, of rail B.

Bylthis arrangement a very simple and eectual means is obtained forguarding against the throwing of the car from the track and also againstthe breaking of a wheel or axle. A simple and eiiicient brake is alsoobtained which when' applied has a tendency to keep the car secured tothe track.

Having thus described my invention what J, and rod K, all as hereinshown and de- I claim as newand desire to secure by Letscribed. tersPatent is: Y n l The arrangement of the central roller Gr, THOMASDTEWART' 5 rail B, pendants 71 and hooks i, with the Witnesses:

wheels E, rails A, pendants H, H, springs THos. OWsToN, Z, Z, rods I,bars F, F, rollers, o, o, f", lever' LEWIS BRoWN

